The Boys Are Alright
Great series! Can you break it down for me? What were your inspirations?
Well, I was trapped in the house and when this started, like everyone else, I was talking to my agents at The Society Management about what we can do. We thought it would be cool to get all the guys who were willing to participate in an at-home shoot. It was something new, I was eager to do something different. It was challenging and fun. I wanted to show them in their home environment, what they are doing, how they are spending this time at home. The main idea was to show what’s keeping them busy while they’re trying to wait it out during the pandemic. Some guys have families, some guys live alone, so I really wanted to show their family and how they are spending their time. I tried to show viewers what an ordinary day in quarantine looks like for them. I didn’t really have much reference, I just wanted to go with the flow. We were very limited with resources. At first I wanted to shoot them in these crazy looks but then I thought, well what will they wear? They probably don’t have crazy, cool clothes at home. I told them to wear whatever they feel comfortable in, be yourself. Read a book, watch TV, play with your kids, whatever you’ve been doing and just pretend I’m not on FaceTime taking pictures of you.
What did your process look like for these shoots?
I called them from my laptop to their iPhones. The iPhone camera is the best they can have at home. I was screen mirroring my computer screen to a massive TV and then taking pictures with my professional camera through the TV screen. It was challenging because we had to wait for better service most of the time. Some guys wanted to go outside on their rooftop because it was such a gorgeous day outside, but then he got to his rooftop and service was terrible. So the picture quality was rubbish and I wouldn’t be able to use those. It was interesting from that point of view. I tried to push as much as I could. Some guys in Italy had really bad service—I had to call four or five times trying to get the best quality, we were fighting against bad wifi. Sometimes the pictures were so scrambled, that I had them move to another room for better service. So guys were hopping around their rooms as close to their routers as they could. I learned a lot about technology! But we managed to get some amazing photos.
What surprised you the most about this?
I was so nervous. I was thinking this will never work. Then I started to shoot and when the pictures came back on my camera, my first thought was, “Wow! This is really amazing.” When you take a picture of a screen, it gives the picture more of an attitude. It adds character to the pictures. I was really surprised how good the photos came out. That was my biggest surprise. Every guy was a little skeptical at first, as I was as well. I experimented with my wife at first—I called her on FaceTime, she went into another room in our house and I tested it out. I was seeing some potential with it, but I wasn’t expecting them to turn out so well. I wanted to keep on going and shooting more. Most of the guys were very skeptical because they didn’t realize you could do this. The most challenging part was getting the perfect lighting, trying to guide them into light and positioned right. It was challenging and tricky, but it was a nice experience for everyone. They were so surprised and happy.
The series features Bryce Anderson, quarantining in Arizone; Federico Spinas, quarantining in Italy; Hao Yunxiang, quarantining in Bejing; Jake Dietrich, at home in NYC; Jake Parker, at home in NJ; Ronald Epps, quarantining with his wife and two children in Philadelphia; Serge Rigvava, at home in NYC; Tamal Lee, expecting his first child, this week, in Brooklyn; Quaher Harhash, at home in Berlin.
Check it out below.
